What picture comes to mind when you think about snowflakes?
You probably envisioned lots of big, fluffy six-sided flakes floating gently from the sky.
Every time it snows we're dodging:
These are just a few of the many variations of ice crystal classifications which create what is more commonly referred to as snowflakes or snow crystals. According to the research team Mangono and Lee, there are approximately 80 different classifications of ice crystals, and not all are pretty or fluffy.
Snow crystals are not simply frozen raindrops. Frozen rain is called sleet and these pellets of frozen water do not have the ornate pattern formation of snowflakes.
Snowflakes are born whenever water vapor condenses into ice crystals. This tranformation from vapor to snow crystal takes place inside freezing cold clouds. These tiny snow crystals attach to each other and form snowflakes. A snowflake is a collection of many snow crystals. Snowflakes can contain hundreds of snow crystals or as few as two crystals. The shape of the snow crystal depends upon how the molecules line up in the crystal lattice. Crystal Lattice is a scientific term to describe frozen water molecules.
The size and shape of any snowflake also depends upon several different weather related factors. Temperature, wind, humidity, etc. all effect the growth of the snowflake. Needles develop when the temperature is 21 to 25 degrees Farenheit. Hollow columns form at 14 to 21 degrees. Sometimes you can actually hear them when the wind blows these hard little crystals against your window glass. Sectored Plates form when the temperature falls to 10 to 14 degrees. And finally dendrites take shape at about 3 to 10 degrees and everything seems silent as these fluffy shapes quietly build into a soft blanket of snow.
